The Washington Times suspends Rand Paul's columns

11/6/13 8:08 AM EST

The Washington Times announced on Tuesday it has suspended Sen. Rand Paul's weekly columns after instances of plagiarism.

“We expect our columnists to submit original work and to properly attribute material, and we appreciate that the senator and his staff have taken responsibility for an oversight in one column,” Times Editor John Solomon said in the Washington Times.

The Kentucky Republican has come under fire in the past few weeks after various news outlets, starting with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, found multiple instances of plagiarism in Paul's speeches and columns. The Washington Times said it will add a correction note to Paul's September column in which the senator failed to attribute a passage to The Week.

On Tuesday, Paul's senior adviser said the material was staff given to the senator were not properly sourced and that they would be now using a new system.

“In the thousands of speeches and op-eds Sen. Paul has produced, he has always presented his own ideas, opinions and conclusions. Sen. Paul also relies on a large number of staff and advisers to provide supporting facts and anecdotes — some of which were not clearly sourced or vetted properly,” Paul senior adviser Doug Stafford said in a statement. “Footnotes presenting supporting facts were not always used.”

The conservative paper seemed to part ways amicably with the senator, keeping the door open to future columns.

“We also appreciate the original insights he has shared with our readers over the last few months and look forward to future contributions from Sen. Paul and any other members of Congress who take the time to help educate our readers,” Solomon said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version misstated which publication Sen. Rand Paul failed to attribute. It was The Week.